Allow direct Chinese investment, CEPD says

By Camaron Kao / Staff reporter

Fri, Mar 15, 2013 - Page 13

Taiwan should open up to direct investment from China to facilitate the nation’s economic development, because China has accumulated a large amount of capital, Council for Economic Planning and Development (CEPD) Minister Kuan Chung-ming (管中閔) said at a conference yesterday.

“China is like a small tiger or dragon that grew into a big one, and I think it is time for us to reconsider how we can utilize China’s muscle,” Kuan said in a panel discussion in an economic conference co-hosted by the Financial Times and Standard Chartered Bank yesterday.

However, Kuan said that China’s economic “bubble” could still burst.

The Chinese government is unable to curb rising housing prices, and Taiwan should diversify its export destinations to include emerging markets in Southeast Asia and the Middle East, he said.

Kuan said China was also experiencing many other problems, which were covered up by government policies, and its economy might stumble if these hidden problems are uncovered.

Kuan said that the opening up of Taiwan’s planned free economic pilot zones to Chinese agricultural products was a trend the Taiwan cannot avoid, but he emphasized that all agricultural products entering the zones would be re-exported.

He made the remarks to ease public concerns that the entry of Chinese agricultural products into the planned zones could eventually open doors to Chinese products going on local market and hurt local producers.